NORTH PARK — After a decade of displaying movies inside Northeastern Illinois College’s auditorium, the Chicago Movie Society is on the hunt for a brand new residence.
The college plans to improve the auditorium, 5500 N. St. Louis Ave., and after the renovation there received’t be sufficient room for the Movie Society’s projectors, mentioned Julian Antos, the nonprofit’s government director. The society will host its ultimate screening at Northeastern this spring.
Whereas the society seems to be for a brand new residence base, the group will proceed to carry common screenings on the Music Field Theatre in Lakeview and at different venues all through the town, mentioned Antos, who additionally works on the Music Field.
Over the previous fourteen years, the Movie Society has constructed up a base of loyal patrons who journey from all around the metropolis for screenings, Antos mentioned. Whereas the Movie Society obtained its begin on the Northwest Aspect, the group is open to relocating anyplace, he mentioned.
The Movie Society is in search of venues situated close to public transit which have ample area for gear and seating, Antos mentioned. Leads on potential areas may be despatched to information@chicagofilmsociety.org.
“The Movie Society has at one time or one other projected movie at each venue in Chicago geared up to take action (and a few that wanted a little bit further assist), together with the rooftop of a pizza restaurant, a car parking zone subsequent to the Metra tracks, and a mosquito-infested marsh. We’ve spent virtually 14 years proving that with the suitable crew and some well-oiled projectors, the viewers will come,” the Movie Society wrote in a current weblog submit.
Holding Movie Alive
The Chicago Movie Society started with a easy mission — assist preserve the movie medium alive via common screenings.
At the moment, the society hosts round 60 screenings-a-year, sees a median of 100 company per screening, has amassed a group of over 3,500 movies, preserves two-to-three movies yearly and runs movie projection workshops, together with one held on the Smithsonian final yr.
“It’s been fairly loopy, once we began the purpose was simply to do a weekly screening collection. We had been run by three individuals and typically just a few volunteers,” Antos mentioned. “We’ve expanded so much.”
The Movie Society’s founders — Antos, Rebecca Corridor and Kyle Westphal — all met whereas working as projectionists on the Financial institution of America Cinema, a theater related to a Portage Park Financial institution of America. Positioned at 4901 West Irving Park Rd., the 290-seat auditorium dated again to the Seventies and confirmed traditional movies each Saturday.
Antos grew up going to the theater and mentioned it impressed him to pursue a profession in movie. In 2010, the theater was shut down.
“The audiences that got here to the reveals had been so distinctive and enthusiastic and we didn’t need to lose that,” Antos mentioned.
Antos, Corridor and Westphal took the Financial institution of America Cinema’s outdated mailing record and began internet hosting weekly screenings, first on the Portage Theater after which on the Patio Theater.
In 2015, certainly one of Antos’ coworkers on the Music Field, who was additionally a scholar at Northeastern, related him with the college’s Communication, Media and Theatre Division. The Movie Society began internet hosting Wednesday screenings on the college and used the auditorium as their “residence base,” Antos mentioned.
Antos mentioned it’s been encouraging to see audiences are nonetheless serious about watching 35mm and 16mm movie prints.The film trade has been shifting away from movie projectors and in direction of digital projection for greater than a decade now. Amidst the trade’s transition, movie screenings play an vital roll in preserving movie expertise, Antos mentioned.
“That is the way in which plenty of these movies had been initially offered,” he mentioned.
An enormous a part of the Movie Society’s mission “is making the stuff that’s in movie archives out there to the general public,” Antos mentioned.
The Movie Society’s ultimate Northeastern screening will likely be a displaying of the 1953 film “The Band Wagon” on Could 14.
The Movie Society is at the moment fundraising to cowl moving-related prices. Donations may be made right here. Details about the Movie Society’s upcoming screenings may be discovered right here.
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